Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla. 6th District), a U.S. Army officer, is defending the president's actions in authorizing a drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani last week and told Cheddar the president acted in self-defense, which Waltz said means he did not need to consult Congress first.
"Looking backwards, I'm fine with this strike," said Waltz. "I think the president has a duty if he has actionable intelligence that [Soleimani] is going to continue to kill Americans — he's operating in the country where he continues to plot and plan those attacks as he has done for decades — he is a lawful enemy combatant, completely within the president's authority to defend our diplomats and our soldiers."
White House officials have not yet provided any evidence showing a threat, which the president called "imminent," or revealed when an attack was expected. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on the president to release the intelligence.
Waltz, who is on the Armed Services Committee, said he is heading to the White House this afternoon to "take a look at it, myself."
Some Pentagon officials have said intelligence did not show an imminent attack and that the move was part of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's push for aggressive action against Iran.
Waltz echoed remarks from Pompeo this morning, who said Soleimani's "long history of attacking Americans and killing people across the Middle East" led to Trump's decision to authorize the drone strike, at least in part.
The congressman also said the strike came "after a long string of Iranian provocations. This is not an escalation, this is a response, and it's a response designed to stop further escalation," similar to Trump's claim that he ordered the strike to stop war, not start it.
"No one in this administration that I've talked to is talking about a D-Day, Normandy style invasion, boots on the ground of Iran," Waltz said, which would necessitate an Authorization for Use of Military Force from Congress. "Self defense is always within the laws of land warfare and within the commander in chief."
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.
The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
President Donald Trump says “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea after China restricted exports of rare earths needed for American industry. The Republican president suggested Friday he was looking at a “massive increase” of import taxes on Chinese products in response to Xi’s moves. Trump says one of the policies the U.S. is calculating is "a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States." A monthslong calm on Wall Street was shattered, with U.S. stocks falling on the news. The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn't responded to an Associated Press request for comment.
Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting showed.
